By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly voted at a special meeting Thursday night to allocate $7,618,993 in city funds for schools in the fiscal year 2021 city budget.
The figure represents a $333,293 increase over last year.
Funding for schools is the largest line item in the city’s general fund budget.
The vote was 6-1, with Steven Eisenbeisz, Kevin Mosher, Kevin Knox, Valorie Nelson, Thor Christianson and Mayor Gary Paxton in favor. Richard Wein voted against, saying he felt it was too early to vote on school funding without knowing revenues and other expenses in the rest of the city budget.
“Not tonight, but yes when I see the budget,” he said.
After the start of the fiscal year on July 1, $7,161,993 of the city funding is to be paid to the school district in even monthly disbursements. In addition, $250,000 is to be disbursed upon receipt of Secure Rural Schools funding, $150,000 for school maintenance and up to $57,000 for utilities for the Performing Arts Center.
The special meeting lasted less than an hour, and included some brief comments by Assembly and School Board members.
Eisenbeisz said he was concerned about committing $250,000 in Secure Rural Schools funding (formerly timber receipts), without knowing what the city is going to receive from the federal source. The finance department used a conservative figure of $500,000, which in the past has been split 50-50 between schools and the city.
“I don’t want to be locked into that number without funding receipt,” Eisenbeisz said.
Assembly members approved the term “upon receipt of Secure Rural Schools” in the motion to clarify the funds won’t be disbursed until they are received through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Interim City Administrator Hugh Bevan said the city is not committed to providing the funds until the second reading of the city budget, expected sometime in April.
Paxton praised the school district, in particular the technical programs that help prepare young people for the workplace.
“I think that’s really important,” he said.
This is the earliest in recent years the Assembly has approved the amount of local school funding for the coming year. Sometimes the figure is not known until after the state deadline for districts to complete their budgets.
Wein commented that in his mind it was too early to commit to a level of school support, without knowing “where the city stands financially.” He noted the high snow-plowing costs this year, the need for a new boat haulout facility, the Green Lake hydro upgrade, and repairs to failing infrastructure.
“I don’t know where we are in the city and our ability to fund this,” he said. Wein also expressed concern that the anticipated surplus in the city’s FY21 budget was small.
School Superintendent Mary Wegner said today the school district appreciates the early funding decision.
“It was very refreshing to have an open dialogue between the Assembly and School Board about their local contribution,” she said. “We very much appreciate knowing early on what the city’s intent is with local contribution. It’s a significant part of the budget – not the biggest part of the budget, but it still makes a big difference to have that intent clarified early on. We appreciate their comments and support.”
But there are still decisions ahead to close the more than $650,000 gap between expenses and expected revenue, she said.
“We still have a deficit – we want to keep class sizes the same,” Wegner said. “We are hopefully not looking at teacher cuts this year, but there will be staff reductions.”
